Perfect Easy Guitar Tutorial (Easy Version) Ed Sheeran

Artist: Ed Sheeran
Genres: Pop
Decades: 2010's

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Perfect (Strummer) Chords:

Strumming Pattern:

1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a

Time Signature

97 bpm

Difficulty: Beginner

Welcome to my Perfect Easy Guitar Tutorial by Ed Sheeran. This simple strumming version is one of the easiest songs on guitar. It uses 4 basic chord shapes (the most common chord progression) and the strumming pattern is all downs, making it very easy to follow along with. I teach the fingerpicking in another tutorial which you can find here – Perfect Guitar Tutorial (Fingerstyle)

“Perfect” TABLE OF CONTENTS

0:00 – INTRO
2:08 – CHORDS + SWITCHING TIPS
3:26 – SWITCHING PRACTICE
4:12 – STRUMMING PATTERN
7:00 – VERSE PLAY-ALONG
7:55 – THE CHORUS
11:29 – CHORUS PLAY-ALONG
12:42 – SONG FORM

The lesson begins with the easiest chord shapes on guitar: G, C, D, Em. We learn how to play them and we practice switching between them using downstrokes only, just so we can count out the chords for the right amount of time.

The strumming pattern for this one is very simple: It’s all downstrokes. What’s important is that we accent beats two and four. This is great for building up your sense of rhythm.

Once we’ve mastered the chord progression and strumming separately, we put them together and we play through the verse nice and slow.

All that’s left now is to learn the chorus. For the most part, it’s a super easy chord progression. There is one bit at the end where we have to strum a few chords in a row using one stroke each. We go over that separately and then we integrate it with the other progression and we play through the chorus together.

Finally we discuss how to play through the entire song.

#Perfect #EdSheeran #GuitarTutorial

Other Ed Sheeran guitar lessons you might be interested in:

🎸 Learn to Play “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran – Chords, Fingerpicking & Practice Guide

Want to confidently fingerpick your way through Perfect?

Struggling to make it through the chord changes smoothly?

Looking for the chords and a simple breakdown so you can actually play the song, not just collect sheet music?

You’re in the right place!

This page doesn’t include lyrics or a full chord/lyric sheet—but it does give you something better:
A step-by-step plan to help you actually learn the song from start to finish, the way I teach my students.

✅ What You’ll Learn Here

The chords used in Perfect
An easy strumming pattern
A breakdown of the chord progression
A section-by-section guide to practicing it

🔁 CHORD PROGRESSION OVERVIEW

VERSE

This section mostly follows a 1–6–4–5 progression (G–Em–C–D), with a simple variation:

The 4th measure goes from G to D, splitting the measure (two beats each).

| G       | Em      | C       | G   D   |
  / / / /   / / / /   / / / /   / / / /

Practice slowly and focus on pivot fingers when switching:

G → Em: Leave your index finger planted
C → Em: Keep your middle finger in place
D → G: Anchor with your ring finger

CHORUS

The chorus reorganizes the chords into a 6–4–1–5 structure, and only 2 beats each!

| Em  C   | G   D  | 
  / / / /   / / / /

Played four times. Then comes a descending bass line figure, like you’d find in Landslide, Dust In The Wind, Wonderful Tonight (and a million other ballads) where each chord gets one beat:

| G  D/F# Em  C  |
  /   /   /   /

And we end with a 4-5 cadence, which kinda gets us “charged up” for the next verse:

| C   D   | 
  / / / /

🚀 Next Steps

Once you can comfortably play Perfect, try:

Practicing with dynamics (quiet verse, louder chorus)
Recording yourself and comparing to the original
Playing it for someone special 😌

If you want to take your guitar skills to the next level, master chords & strumming and more, consider checking out my All-Access Pass!

⚠️ Disclaimer
This tutorial is for educational purposes and personal practice only.
All rights to the original composition belong to their respective copyright holders.
This page does not include or distribute lyrics or official sheet music.

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